Written Paths
by collinfan
Summary: At Enchanted Academy were Fairy Tale characters prepare to write their own futures, David's life has just erupted. He isn't the poor son of a farmer but a lost prince who is now betrothed to his best friend Snow White. On top of this and the upcoming Path test, he has to compete a Prince's task: to help bad boy Hook to pass- only falling in love with Hook wasn't part of the plan.


**Once upon a time and its characters are not own by me**

**Please enjoy!**

**Life is a funny thing…**

Enchanted Academy was founded in the year of the Founders- the first fairy tale characters which the ones we know and love derived from. Heather Grimm, granddaughter of Jacob Grimm, was the first principal of the school. The school was housed where the final war against the humans and the trolls took place. Enchanted started out as a reform school for the children of the fairy tale world then moved onto be an elite academy for the sons and daughters of these fairy tale characters. They would be taught their roles of their life as dictated by the Oracle of Old. Each student would enter at the age of nine and be put in front of the oracle and then, would set down on a path dictated by the soothsayer to start their way for their future, each decision affecting what the outcome will be. The head of the Fairy Tale Order thought it best if the children not be told of their future but be set on the path chosen by the all seeing so that they may discover their own selves along the way- even if it meant coming out evil at the end.

As the Realm entered a new age, the Moon Light age, the plans for a new school began. What began as a brick and molder building was now a castle- Margret Ella's (first lady of the Enchanted Forest and grandmother to Cinderella) to be exact. The school had a west and south wing and towers that house the girls and boys respectively. It had many sun dappled rooms that held as class rooms for the students. Some of the rooms which were favored by the headmistress were: the sword building room which was placed deep in the dungeons so the girls and boys could work with the hot furnaces to mold their weapons from simple silver or ore into vast weapons, the magic room where enchantments (good kinds) were taught, the sitting room in Unicorn Hall, where painted unicorns came to life and galloped along the walls as students and staff sat in peace, and finally the library hall leading up into her office.

The achievements of the school have been many. The parents of Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping beauty, Belle Le Maker, and the other parents of the characters we know and love from stories had gone through the Academy and onto fulfilling lives and long loves or not so grand lives, like that of Cora, Queen of hearts and Regina's ( the Queen of darks) mother.

Like all Schools, Enchanted got new students from every generation of a family, from the high lord and ladies, to the low peasant born serfs each year. Because every life has a story to tell and it was up to the Academy to get the ladies and gentlemen ready for their own story.

This generation of students at Enchanted were the very children we grow up reading about when they are older and much more learned of the world (Snow White, Prince Charming, Aurora, Cinderella, etc.), but like child they must grow up and learn first...

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><p><em>Tap<em>

_Tap_

_Tap  
>tap...<em>

"David," Snow White whispered and placed a well-aimed kick at her best friend's shin, "Knock it off.

David Charming looked up from where he had been staring blankly at his journal and tapping his quill off his desk to Snow White, Princess of one of the Kingdom's of the Enchanted Forest. David shrugged his shoulders apologetically and watched as Snow's ruby lips curled up in a smirk before she turned back to her own work.

David put down his quill and gave a nice long stretch before peering around the class room. Everyone it seemed was busy at something besides him. He glanced up at the teacher, a fairy imp by the name of Even, but even he was absorbed in a book. David watched the blue imp flip through the pages and his eyes scan the material written. He always found it amusing how imps could absorb all the knowledge of something just by touching an object, yet their teacher always read everything word for word. He supposed that was why Even taught the scripture and lore class while the other imps stuck to more physical work out doors.

David sighed and ran a hand through his hair. No matter how much how much he tried to concentrate on his work he just could not. His brain was like a hive of bees buzzing around and around without end, and he thought with zealous, he was going to go crazier than the mad Hatter. He glanced over to the boy who shared his dorm and found him spinning his top black hat around on the desk. David raised an eyebrow as the black haired boy with tallow skin and wide purple eyes stuck his head into the opening then came back out with white snow on his head. David shook his head as he watched the snow drift off the boy and onto the black uniform. He never did understand how that magic hat worked he only knew that after a couple of uses the Hatter would begin to get very quiet and almost violent to where he had to be pulled away from the student body until he cooled down.

_Whoosh!_

A sound like falling stars echoed around the room and David jerked back from his musings and noticed that the room around him was in movement as everyone collected their belongings and started to head out the door. David looked at the coco clock that hung by the door and saw that it was time for lunch; class was over. He had begun to shove his stuff into his bag when he felt a hand touch his arm.

"David, you sure you are all right?" Snow asked the question for the umpteenth time that morning.

The boy nodded to Snow and smiled, hoping he could hide the lie behind it. "Yes, Snow, I am fine just like I have been every time you have asked me. You shouldn't worry so much. I hear its bad for beauty."

The princess snorted and hit David on the arm and glared, "I'll show you beauty when my arrow splits yours today on the field!"

He laughed. He had known Snow White since they were both babies: David, a poor son of a widowed Farmer and Snow, a princess of a kingdom. They had met only because David's mother had help delivered Snow when her mother went into labor while passing through on his mother's land. In return, the Queen gave the widow a job at the castle in the kitchen and David became a watchful eye over baby Snow and when she got older a most wanted playmate. Then, when David's mother died, David became a squire for Snow's father and Snow was there for him and he for her when Snow's mother died and her father married Cora- giving Snow a new mother and step sister named Regina- and then there for her again when her father passed. They all had been shipped off to the Academy at age nine and they were now both seventeen and in their last year at the academy. At least, that was how David had thought his life had been- a happy son of a widowed wife. It turned out it was all wrong.

The princess looked at her friend again with soft eyes," David, I understand things must be…surprising the past few days ever since you discovered…you're…"

"That my whole life was a lie and that I am some prince from some kingdom next to nowhere and that I am now suddenly betrothed to you?" David asked hotly. He saw the sudden hurt on Snow's face and he sighed and said gently, "I'm sorry. That came out harsher then I meant it to. It's just I'm not so sure about this whole prince thing. I was just use to being a farmer's boy and your friend. It isn't that I wouldn't mind marrying you, Snow. You're Pretty and everything…I just..." He trailed off and bowed his head.

David the poor farm boy was in truth David Charming- the long lost Son of a king George. He had been enjoying his nice and quiet evening with his friends when Algor, the silent dwarf of the headmistress, had handed David a slip of paper with the Headmistress seal burnished on the front of it. He was then lead to her office and seated in a chair.

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><p><em>The headmistress was a tall woman with a soft face and slim body which would have been made her beautiful had it not been for the burn on the left side of her face. She was the great, great; great granddaughter of one of the Grimm's and had ruled at the school for the past thirty years. She sat poised in her chair, her hands folded, and a small smile on her right half of her face as she looked down at David who was seated right in front of her. <em>

"_David, do you know why I called you in here?" she asked the young man who seemed to disappear inside the velvet seat._

_The youth shook his head. No, he did not know why he had been summoned to the headmistress office, he had no idea what he could have done to be called, nor did he have a vague image of what was in store for him. "No, ma'am, I couldn't say."_

_Sally nodded her head and stood up and came around her desk. She walked over to the wall where a huge map of the Enchanted Forest and all her kingdoms lay. David watched her study it and in turn David studied the room. He took in the mantle over the roaring fire place and looked with interest at the things housed in glass jars. They were most strange things that he had never seen. On the far left in one of the jars was a mass of blackness. He squinted and thought he could make out something moving within the mass. It was something almost another shade of black that seemed heavier with flow as he watched it move. Yes! Something was in there. David craned his to see into the jar and held his breath as he watched the mass seem to slide against the glass coming towards him. Then suddenly he jumped back in fright as he saw a face smash up against the glass and scream as if in torture, but there was no sound of screaming. David stifled a yelp and flung his back into the chair and looked away. His heart was beating hard and fast and he decided not to inspect the other jars after all. _

"_David," Sally said drawing back the young man's attention. She had watched amused at David's reaction to the glass jar and she walked over to it and picked it up. She said, "This jar houses a shadow. It was captured by my father from another world. There are many worlds out there besides our own did you know that?"_

_David shook his head, his eyes back on the shadow._

"_This shadow was from a man: just a regular man who was tricked with magic and his shadow stolen. The man's shadow was used for evil things. Things I won't speak of because they are unfit for young men's ears. Know only that many peoples suffered from this wicked shadow."_

"_What happen to the man?" David asked peeling his eyes away to look at Sally. _

"_The man lived in hiding. Everyone blamed him for the events his shadows caused. The man argued and yelled that he wasn't his shadow and that magic had twisted the shadow into what it was. Of course, the people didn't listen as they were to worn down by anguish. So, the man went out to prove himself and in the end caused more destruction then his shadow did." Sally ended her story by placing the jar back on the mantel then came to perch on the arm rest of David's chair, "Do you know the lesson that comes from that story?"_

_David, like all the other students in the school, had learned that all stories told a lesson and their futures, their stories, would be taught as lessons for future generations and to live by that. "Was it that proving your-self isn't always fulfilling as it may seem?"_

_Sally nodded and also said, "And also we can take from this, that growing up you seem to know who you are and what you are to become but sometimes our whole life and what we stand for and feel can be a lie. The man thought he was good but in the end it turns out he was evil the whole time."_

_David brows furrowed, "Does this have a reason behind why I was called here tonight?"_

"_Yes, David. Late last night I received a letter. From King George, his son is dead. He had died in an attack from a beast."_

_David frowned, "I am sorry for his lost but I don't see what this has to do with me."_

"_The king wrote that he had two sons not just one. Twins, he said. He told me how he had put the other son away from his enemies' eyes- this child was betrothed to snow white. But you see, the older twin, the heir is dead, and the king has need for another heir, and it is the lost twin who he had placed away into safety long ago. He had sent riders looking for the child who would be now a young man, but the home was inhabited long ago. So he sent to me asking if anyone at the school fit the description. I found one boy who did. The king sent a man to see if it was true or not, if the young man was indeed the lost heir, and it is true."_

_David felt a sinking feeling in the bottom of his gut. His vison seemed like a tunnel, closing in and in by the second. He felt a cool mist of sweat come over his as he clutched at the arm on the chair, "W-What does this have to do with me?"_

"_My dear," Sally said softly, "You are the lost twin. You are the prince."_

_David came to his feet and shook his head as if he could shake what had been said from his ears. "No! No! I'm David! I'm a poor farm boy whose mother died and who has been living within the Castle of White and friend to Snow White! I am not a prince or a long lost son." _

"_But my dear, you are."_

_David felt numb and all he could do is rock back and forth on his feet whilst shaking his head. He breathed deep. He knew there was no sense crying or whining about it- this sort of thing was not uncommon in the Fairytale world. If this was how his Destiny was to play out, if this is what his classes had prepared him for then so be it. He would take it like a man._

"_What is to happen now?"_

_Sally smiled, proud of the David's proven maturity on the matter in which they have arrived in. she spread her hands out and said, "Your classes will be a little more varied then they have been. I have spoken to the oracle of your future…"_

_David took note of that, "But I thought no one knew our futures or how we will end up besides the Oracle and even then it knows not a clear future for us? We enter the school at nine and we are placed in front of the oracle and then it sets us down our paths which will shape us given our choices and help prepare us for the final testing which will then be determining a step in our future."_

_The final test took place on the foregrounds of the school in front of everyone (student, teacher, lords, ladies, heroes of the past, guilds, kings and queens) the student had to stand before the oracle which then surrounded the student with its magic, what went on inside the Oracle varied for each student, then when completed and determining what paths and choices they had chosen through their lives and up until that point (meetings, work, friends, love, virtues, etc.) they were shown one glimpse into their future. For example, Snow white's mother had a glimpse of giving birth to Snow in a snow storm. Then, from that glimpse the started to live their written stories. For some nothing eventual every happen for others huge things happened like taking over a castle or becoming a prince or king. _

"_Yes, you are right. I only meant I have spoken with it and it has varied your paths you will take a little bit." _

_David took a breath, "When will I mean this king?" _

_The headmistress replied, "I do not know. Only the all-seeing knows that I am afraid."_

_David shook his head. This morning he had awoken an old poor man's son and now he was a prince. _

"I know it's going to be hard, David. It affects me too, but we will get through it together."

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><p>David smiled and felt sorry for being selfish. He swung his pack over his shoulder and said, "The whole school knows and it feels like they all just stare at me. It does not help that I don't even know what my new task is as Prince David."<p>

As a prince, he was to complete one task that would help shape him into the prince he was to become. What that task was no one knew. For Snow it had been easy, all she had to do was help a Goblin who was being picked on one day. She had completed a task and when the goblin had gone, he name appeared in smoke with a crown next to it letting her know she had completed her Princess test. But, the task weren't always so easy. David learned his new discovered but much dead brother had gone through the wicked wood in order to save children from a witch.

"It will come in time. Don't worry."

"Snow come along will you. I wish to eat before all the food is gone."

David and Snow looked up to see Regina in the door way. The dark seventeen year old wore a frown and was tapping her foot at her step-sister. David nodded a mutual greeting to her. Regina was just the opposite of her bright Step-sister and it was a running joke among David and Snow that Regina would end up being some old spinner in a cottage one day if she never learned to smile. Though, David thought darker plans lay in wait for Regina, but he never voiced his thoughts to Snow and could only hope Regina did not let the dark path lay claim to her. He could see the dark woman had a special spot for Snow as the White princess seemed the only student here to even make an effort to get close to her step-sister.

"You go on ahead, Snow," David said and watched his friend go.

_It wouldn't be bad marrying your best friend…if only-_

His thoughts were cut short when Even called out his name and came to float in front of David's face. The shrunken down imp held a knowing look in his eyes. "Master David, I would be much obliged to speak with you a moment about something…"

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